Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 13:53:30 -0500
To: [c--m--x] at [europe.std.com]
From: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart)
Subject: Brazilian Comics

Arrived in the mail this morning, a Brazilian comic from Mr. Nevins,
globe-trotter.

My Portugese is non-existent but I was pretty much able to figure this one
out through the art alone. The comic is called "Cyber Force" and seems to
be the sixth book in a series. This is roughly the same size as traditional
American comics, full colour.

The story is "Instinto Assassino" parte 2, and seems to be by a young
Brazilian cartoonist named Marc Silvestri. Quite simply this is one of the
best comics I have seen in some time.

The story is told primarily in metaphor. There are a number of character
with large muscles, glowing red eyes and claws and garish full-body paint.
I understand these characters to be emblematic of the Brazilian people
(each representing a different class fraction, I think). If I'm reading
this right then on the opening pages the Brazilian middle-class (here named
"Ripclaw") is in the process of being de-stabilized by the World Bank and
the IMF, represented by a guy with a long green ponytail and claws
(apparently claws are very metaphoric in Brazil). Suddenly it turns out to
be a dream and the Brazilian middle-class is alright. Whew!

Following that the Brazilian workers (drawn as a young woman with green
body paint and enormous, heaving breasts that represent a natural
productive (and reproductive) potential) are confronted by a menacing
threat: American industrialization which threatens low-skilled labour in
the country (here drawn as a giant killing robot). Fortunately the nimble
and skilled working class is able to vanquish the foreign interloper!
Hurrah!

Then, tragedy. The middle-class (Ripclaw) loses its sense of national
solidarity and turns on the working class (big-breasted lass) with a
vicious sneak attack that destabilizes the currency (represented as
chopping down a tree).

Meanwhile in the universities economists (represented as large-breasted
scientists) struggle to come to terms with spiralling inflation.

The working class is saved from the treacherous middle-class by a timely
intervention on the part of international labour solidarity. Whew.

In the subplot the church (a cyborg with a ponytail) confronts the state (a
girl with a trenchcoat, a glowing eye and a heaving bosom) and battle
inconclusively for the hearts and minds of the populace. This features a
great two-page splash where the church almost knocks the state out of its
bra!

Meanwhile the middle-class continues on its rampage until it is felled by
the combined power of international commerce (represented as the guy with
the green pony-tail) and American interventionist policies in the cultural
realm (a woman with enormous breasts and long red hair). The book ends with
the Brazilian people uniting to come to the aid of the middle-class in its
fight against American encroachments into Brazilian sovereignty.

I think I would have liked this better had it focussed a little more on the
class antagonisms intrinisc in the Ripclaw/green chick fight - the
resolution is a little too pat at the end, suggesting that the middle-class
was temporarily insane and not involved in a historical class struggle
which has subjected the Brazilian working-class to extreme hardships.

Nonetheless it is an interesting tale of Brazilian cultural production in
the face of American cultural imperialism. By utilising the tropes and
aesthetics of the American superhero comic to deliver its broader
cultural/political statement about national solidarity Cyber Force is truly
counter-hegemonic.

I think that the work of Marc Silvestri would probably appeal to most
people on this list and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Thanks Mark! That was very thoughtful of you!

bart